Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom

A practical guide for teachersBy Ania Krzyzak

Education is undoubtedly the birthright of all children. In this
situation, the purpose of every nation is to produce literate, well-educated
and intelligent residents who are able to contribute to the proper development
and progress of the whole society. Schools cater to all needs of children
coming from different classes and sections of the society. In these schools
children form various backgrounds with different interests, expectations, needs
and certainly learning styles and abilities meet. Unfortunately, among these
pupils there are many smart and intellectually capable children who are not
given an opportunity to present their knowledge and show their intelligence,
instead they are often labelled as lazy, stupid and very often ineducable. In
fact, these children are not ineducable, but suffer from a frequent and common
processing problem - dyslexia. In every day practice, the number of very
intelligent children who encounter difficulties in reading and writing is high
and the phenomenon of dyslexia occurs profusely.

To many experts, dyslexia seems to be a very elusive condition.
Some are still arguing over its nature, origin and symptoms, since dyslexia has
many faces. Dyslexia manifests itself by significant difficulties in the
acquisition and use of writing, reading, speaking, listening, reasoning and
mathematical abilities.

Through the past years there has been a significant increase in
the amount of research on dyslexia conducted and the emerging data is far from
conclusive. Some possible causes of dyslexia have been identified by
researchers, but not all have been fully confirmed yet. There may exist many
theories concerning the etiology of dyslexia, but the factors responsible for
some specific learning difficulties include: genetic, environmental and
neurological factors (such as brain impairment, deformation, dysfunction and
backwardness, the brain's anatomical differences and the size of hemispheres),
disorders happening in the prenatal period, disorders in sensory perception and
motor functions and hearing problems in early childhood. Dyslexia, however, may
be associated with some risk factors, such as: male sex and other family
members affected with this dysfunction.

Going further with dyslexia, I would like to concentrate on the
symptoms and remedial support. There are many warning signs and visible
symptoms of this learning disorder which can be easily and early noticed by
parents and teachers. Dyslexia is a diverse condition which can range from mild
to severe symptoms. When one takes into consideration children with dyslexia,
it clearly appears that they are not at all alike. Undoubtedly, each individual
sufferer displays a different set of features, but there is one common problem
all dyslexics face - it is difficulty with the written language, a failure to
recognise and interpret what is perceived. Symptoms of dyslexia are closely
related to the following areas: vision, reading, spelling, hearing, speaking,
writing, balance and movement and memory. Most commonly, however, this learning
dysfunction is characterized by problems with single word decoding, usually
reflecting insufficient phonological-processing abilities. Apart form the
symptoms related to the areas mentioned above, there are other warning signs of
dyslexia which include: spoonerism, sequencing, trouble telling the time and
physical clumsiness. In observing symptoms of dyslexia, a huge role is
attributed to teachers. In the classroom process teachers can notice among
dyslexics such warning signs as: changed or reversed shapes and sequences of
letters and numbers, inconsistent and incoherent spelling, skipping words or
lines while reading, poor concentration and high distractibility while reading,
word blurring, doubling and size change. Furthermore, these can be:
difficulties making some speech sounds and meaningful utterances, confusion
between left and right, difficulties in judging distances, following
directions, remembering instructions, repeating long words and finally
illegible handwriting.

Dyslexia is a problem that many students face and have great
difficulty coping with in a school environment. However, with the help and
support of the teacher, dyslexic students can become successful learners. The
role of teachers is to make educational adjustments to facilitate learning and
create successful class environment. Educators ought to bear in mind that
acquiring a great amount of knowledge about a dyslexic learner is the factor
that may play an essential role in a child's later success. Therefore, teachers
ought to collect as much information about a dyslexic, his family, friends and
environment as possible. Whenever a dyslexic child is positively sure that the
teacher recognises and is aware of the nature of the learner's difficulties and
helps him/her to overcome them, it may increase the dyslexic's motivation as
well as make him/her willing to learn.

Continuing with the teacher's role in working with dyslexic
learners, it ought to be remembered that the curriculum needs to be designed in
an appropriate way to suit the dyslexic's needs, and textbooks and materials
selected with the dyslexic in mind. When choosing a suitable course book for a
dyslexic student, it ought to be remembered that the book is well structured
and clear. Moreover, schematic layout should be provided so that the student
knows what to expect form a particular unit. When choosing the course book, the
teacher should pay attention to the size of the font - the bigger the letters,
the easier for a dyslexic to perform reading tasks. Certainly, as far as the
content of the book is concerned, it should not be overloaded with new lexical
items and grammatical structures. It is advisable for a teacher to choose a
course book accompanied with a workbook with plenty of exercises for a dyslexic
learner's individual practice.

Undoubtedly, there is no reason why a dyslexic learner ought to
be taught different lexical items and grammatical structures than the rest of
students. Certainly, the only changes the teacher is to introduce are in the
strategy of teaching not the content. The basic rule for teachers is to bear in
mind that gradual progress is the key to successful teaching. Presented
material ought to be dealt with step by step, and the level of difficulty of
the next lesson should not be higher than the previous one. Teachers ought to
take into consideration the fact that while working with dyslexics, certainly
more time ought to be spent on revising material already familiar to students
rather than introducing new one.

School environment plays an important role for a dyslexic
learner. A structured, predictable and ordered educational environment should
be ensured by teachers, as children with learning difficulties work best and
respond most favourably in such settings. A general approach, that is on one
hand positive and on the other sympathetic, may diminish a dyslexic child's
anxieties and doubts and remove unnecessary pressures. In a positive and
encouraging environment, dyslexic learners experience the feelings of
satisfaction, success and self-value. Many of the achievements as well as
failures that happen in a dyslexic student's school life depend on the
teacher's attitude to a great extent.

There exists much evidence illustrating that many strategies,
teaching techniques and approaches incorporated by teachers into the teaching
process may help dyslexic learners overcome their difficulties. One of such
techniques is the multi-sensory approach. Multi-sensory means making use of all
the senses in the learning process. This kind of teaching is based on a
combination of aural, visual, tactile and kinesthetic aspects to improve and
facilitate learning. Multi-sensory teaching emphasizes direct teaching of all
new material, maintaining student-teacher interaction and suggests that the
content ought to be mastered in such a way that a student gives an automatic
response. It has been observed that children taught in multi-sensory programs
have made remarkable progress particularly in decoding skills. Furthermore,
multi-sensory teaching and learning may be provided not only for dyslexic
learners; it is a technique the whole class benefits form.

Another teaching strategy for dyslexic learners which turns out
to be very effective is confidence building. This corrective therapy, conducted
by the teacher, is based on changing a dyslexic student's attitude towards
himself or herself. It aims at making a dyslexic child aware of the fact that
he/she possesses good as well as weak sides and that he/she might turn out to
be better in certain aspects than a non-dyslexic child. It is claimed that in
order to preserve self-confidence in a dyslexic child he/she ought to be
praised and given credits not only for what is done at school, but also for
that done afterwards.

In facilitating a dyslexic student's learning, the teacher's
ingenuity and the circumstances can work miracles. Classroom arrangement
(placing a dyslexic close to the blackboard or by the teacher's desk),
allotting more time while testing, lowering educational requirements to a
certain extent, as well as assigning homework ought to be taken into
consideration.

Unfortunately, some scepticism is still expressed by teachers
about whether students really encounter learning difficulties or intentionally
avoid carrying out certain tasks. It seems to be a very common phenomenon for
teachers to be particularly confused by the student whose consistent
underachievement is due to factors such as lack of effort and carelessness. It
is quite a common phenomenon for teachers to neglect dyslexia and other
learning difficulties and attribute children's school problems to laziness,
lack of concentration and absent-mindedness. Hopefully, with increasing teacher
knowledge of learning difficulties, great deal of misunderstanding of
children's behaviour may be avoided.

Summarizing, it can be concluded that one of the most
significant factors enabling a dyslexic child to overcome his/her learning
difficulties is the implementation of a wide variety of methods and approaches
as well as the teacher's guidance and support. Having a dyslexic learner in
class involves introducing certain changes in order to facilitate the learning
process and make the learner feel safe and comfortable. Teachers need to be
made aware of the fact that dyslexia is a serious learning difficulty which
commonly exists, but can be successfully dealt with and diminished.